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nuvV BIRDS AFFECT THE 
FARM AND GARDEN. 



A SERIES OF FACTS DETERMINED BY INVESTIGATION OF TIIK 

FOOD HABITS OF OUR COMMON BIRDS, SHOWING THEIR 

CHARACTER AS INSECT DESTROYERS AND THEIR 

VALUE AS ALLIES OF THE FARMER 

AND FRUIT GROWER. 

M BY FLORENCE A. MERRIAM. 




I 



THK MOClCINGBrKI). 

Reprinted from ""Forest and Stream.'' 
NEW YORK: 

Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
346 Broadway. 



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Copyiight. 18.36, by 
Forett and Stidam Publishing Company 






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Copies of this booklet in quantities of one hundred or more will 
be supplied at cost to societies and individuals for distribution. 



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BIRDS AND FARMERS 

From, the Forest and Stream. 



The advocates of protection for our small birds present 
two sets of reasons for preventing their killing: the one 
sentimental, and the other economic. 

The sentimental reasons are the ones most often urged ; 
they are also of a kind to appeal with especial force 
to those whose responsibility for the destruction of the 
birds is greatest. The women and girls, for whose adorn- 
ment birds' plumage is chiefly used, think little and know 
lees about the services which birds perform for agricul- 
ture, and indeed it may be doubted whether the sight of 
a bunch of feathers or a stuffed bird's skin suggests to 
them any thought of the life that those feathers once rep- 
resented. But when the wearers are reminded that there 
was such a life; that it was cheery and beautiful, and that 
it was cut short merely that their apparel might be 
adorned, they are quick to recogniz3 that bird destruc- 
tion involves a wrong, and are ready tc do their part 
toward ending it by refusing to wear plumage. 

The small boy, who pursues little birds from the stand- 
point of the hunter in quest of his game, feels only the 
ardor of pursuit. His whole mind is concentrated on 
that and the hunter's selfishness, the desire of possession, 
fills his heart. Ignorance and thoughtlessness destroy 
the birds. 

Every one knows in a general way that birds render 
most valuable service to the farmer, but although these 
services have long been recognized in the laws standing 
on the statute books of the various States, it is only 
within a few years that any systematic investigations 
have been undertaken to determine just what such ser- 
vices are, to measure them with some approach to accu- 
racy, to weigh in the case of each species the good and 
the evil done, and so to strike a balance, in favor of the 
bird or against it. The inquiries carried on by the Agri- 
cultural D partment on a large scale and those made by 
variouslocal experiment stations and by individual observ- 
ers have given results which are vpry striking and which 
can no longer be ignored. Some of these results Miss Mer- 
riam gives in her paper prepared for Forest andStrea-M. 
It deserves careful study, not only by every farmer, but 
also by every one who is at ail interested in birds or in 
agriculture in any form. At a time like this, when 
reports of the ravages of army worms, elm beetles and 
other noxious insects are constantly heard, a paper such 
as this has a deep interest for a very large class. Miss Mer- 



4 BIRDS AND FARMKB8. 

riam's articles, besides being written in graceful, simple 
and popular style, give in small compass the results of 
many papers which have appeared in different reports, 
not all of them easily accessible, and these reports are 
often so technical as to be quite beyond the grasp of the 
general reader. A wide circulation of Miss Merriam's 
paper would do much to arouse an intelligent apprecia- 
tion among agriculturists of the vast good done by many 
spscies of birds, and would greatly benefit the country. 

It is a difficult matter for any one to balance the good 
things that he reads and believes about any animal 
against the bad things that he actually sees. The man 
who witnesses the theft of his cherries by robin or cat- 
bird, or the killing of a quail by a marsh hawk, feels that 
here he has ocular proof of harm done by the birds, 
while as to the insects or the field mice destroyed, and the 
crops saved, he has only the testimony of some unknown 
and distant witness. It is only natural that the observer 
should trust the evidence of his senses, and yet his eyes 
tell him only a small part of the truth, and that small 
part a misleading one. 

It is certain that without the services of these feathered 
laborers, whose work is unseen, though it lasts from day- 
light till dark through every day in the year, agriculture 
in this country would come to an immediate standstill, 
and if in the brief season of fruit each one of these work- 
ers levies on the farmer the tribute of a few berries, the 
price is surely a small one to pay for the great good 
done. Supprficial persons imagine that the birds are here 
only during the summer, but this is a great mistake. It is 
true that in warm weather, when insect life is most 
abundant, birds are also most abundant. They wage an 
effective and unceasing war against the adult insects and 
their larvae, and check their active depredations; but in 
winter the birds carry on a campaign which is hardly less 
important in its results. It is then that the chickadee, the 
nuthatch, the brown creeper, the kinglets and the wood- 
peckers are hard at work all through the short days, 
searching the crevices and crannies in the bark of the tree 
trunks and branches, looking among the undergrowth^ 
hunting along the fences for the bunches of eggs, the 
buried larvMe and the pupa- of the insects, which if undis- 
turbed would, when warm weather comes, hatch out mil- 
lions of creeping, crawling and flying things that would 
devastate garden and orchard and every crop of the field. 
It is through this silent, unceasing work by the birds- 
some in summer and others in winter — that the insect hosts 
are held in check. 



HOW BIRDS AFFECT THE FARM AND 
GARDEN. 

BY FLORENCE A. MERRIAM. 

It is said that two hundred millions of dollars thai 
should go to the farmer, the gardener and the fruit grow- 
er in the United States, are lost every year by the ravages 
of insects—that is to say, one-tenth of our agricultural 
products is actually destroyed by them. The ravages of 
the gypsy moth in three counties in Massachusetts for 
several years annually cost the State $100,000. Now, as 
rain is the natural check to drou;yht, so birds are the nat 
ural check to insects, for what are pests to the farmer are 
necessities of life to the bird. It is calculated that an 
average insectivorous bird destroys 3,400 insects in a year: 
and when it is remembered that there are over 100,000 
kinds of insects in the United States, the majority of 
which are injurious, and that in some cases a single indi- 
vidual in a year may become the progenitor of several 
billion descendants, it is seen how much good birds do 
ordinarily by simple prevention. 

The good they do in cases of insect plagues, like that of 
the grasshopper scourge in Nebraska and Kansas, is still 
more marked. Then, as self-constituted militia, they flj 
to the scene of action and make away with the rioters. 
An interesting case of this kind was seen in an old or- 
chard in Illinois. The cankerworm had so taken posses- 
sion that the orchard looked almost as if overrun with 
fire. Forty different kinds of birds assembled in the 
place to feed upon the worms. Oae hundred and forty- 
one of the birds were shot and the contents of their stom- 
achs examined; more than one-third of their food was 
found to have been cankerworms — the feathered army 
was simply wiping out the horde of worms. A similar 
case occurred in Massachusetts, and after the visit of the 
birds a good crop ot apples was raised in the orchard 
which had been devastated. 

It is well known that of the various groups of birds the 
majority live upon insects. Among the insect eaters are 
the flycatchers, warblers, woodpeckers, nuthatches, ori- 
oles, goatsuckers, hummingbirdSj tanagerS; waxwings, 
gnatcatchers, kinglets, vireos, thrushes, wrens, titmicej 
cuckoos, swallows, shrikes, thrashers, creepers and blue- 
birds. 

It is not generally known, however, that the so called 
seed eaters feed their young laigeiy upon injects, and eat 



6 



HOW BIRDS AFFECT 



a great maDy themselves; nor is it realized how much 
good they do by eating weed seeds. Prof. F. E. L. Beal 
has calculated that the little tree sparrow in Iowa alone 
dpstroys 1,720 OOOlbs. of noxious weed seeds every year. 
Moreover, in summer seed eaters eat blueberries, huckle- 
berries, strawberries and raspberries, and distribute their 
seeds unharmed over thousands of acres which would not 
otherwise support such growth. 

These facts show how important it is that the birds 
should be protected and encouraged, except in the ex- 
ceedingly few cases where for a few weeks they eat some 
one cultivated crop to such excess that the loss is not 
compensated by the good they do in destroying pests the 
rest of the year. The Department of Agriculture, realiz- 
ing the losses that might result from the ignorant sacri- 
fice of useful birds, constituted the Division of Economic 
Ornithology a court of appeal where accusations against 
the birds could be received and investigated. 

The method used by the division is the final one — the 
examination of stomach contents to prove the actual food 
of the birds. A collection of 26 000 stomachs has been 
made by the co operation of hunters and collectors who 
have shot tho birds for other purposes, and a reference 
collection of 800 kinds of seeds and 500 beetles and many 
other insects has been brought together for comparison 
in determininsr the character of food remains found. Al- 




MAPLK CATERPILLAR. 



THE FARM AND GARDEN. 7 

ready about forty different kinds of birds have been ex- 
amined and reported upon. The examinations have been 
made chit fly by Prof. Walter B. Barrows, Prof. Otto 
Lugger, Mr. E. A. Schwarz, Dr. A. K. Fisher, Prof. F. E. 
L. Beal and Mr. Sylvester D. Judd, with the assistance of 
the late Prof. C. V. Riley and Mr. L. O. Howard, now 
chief entomologist of the Department of Agriculture. 
The reports already printed or about to be issued by the 
Division of Ornitholoay are the reports of the ornitholo- 
gist for the years 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892 
(with notes on tlie Food Habits of the Cedar Bird and 
Horned Lark), 1893 (with notes on the Food of the King- 
bird), 1894 (with articles on the Crow Blackbirds and their 
Food, and Hawks and Owls from the Standpoint of the 
Farmer); Bulletin No. 1, The English Sparrow, by Walter 
B. Barrows; Bulletin No. 3, Hawks and Owls, by Dr. A. 
K. Fisher; Bulletin No. 6, The Common Crow of the 
United States, by Walter B. Barrows and E. A. Schwarz 
(1895); Bulletin No. 7, Preliminary Report on the Food of 
Woodpeckers, by F. E. L. Beal (1895); Four Common 
Birds of the Farm and Garden, by Sylvester D. Judd; The 
Meadowlark and Baltimore Oriole, by F. E. L, Beal; The 
Food Habits of the Kingbird, by Walter B. Barrows; The 
Cedar Bird, by F. E. L, Beal. 

After the examination of about forty birds, the only 
one actually sentenced to death is the English sparrow. 
Of all the accused hawks only three have been found 
guilty of the charges made against them — the goshawk. 
Cooper's and the sharp-shinned — while the rest are num- 
bered among the best friends of the fruit grower and 
farmer. Of the woodpeckers, the sapsucker and redhead 
may be beneficial or injurious, according to circum- 
stances, but the rest of the family are highly beneficial. 
To most of the remaining birds tried the evidence is de- 
cidedly creditable. The crow, crow blackbird and cedar 
bird are acquitted as doing more good than harm; and it 
is proved that agriculturists owe especial protection and 
friendship to the phcebe, kingbird, catbird, swallow, 
brown thrasher, rose-breasted grosbeak, house wren, 
vireos, cuckoo, oriole, shore lark, loggerhead shrike and 
meadowlark. 

Catbird. 

The catbird is persecuted because it eats fruit; but, 
although stomach examinations show that it does eat 
considerable in some parts of the country, one-third of its 
food consists of insects which annually destroy a large 
part of the farmer's profits. As Mr. Judd, in speaking of 



S HOW BIRDS AFFECT 

the catbird, j^ays; "By killing the birds their services as 
insect destroyers would be lost, so the problem is to keep 
both the birds and the fruit." The study of this matter 
has led to one of the most important discoveries made in 
the investigations of the Division of Ornithology. It has 
been demonstrated that some birds—the catbird among 
the number — actually prefer vt^ild fruits to cultivated^ 
and that most of the complaints of depredations come 




from parts of the country where there is little wild fruity 
so that by planting berry-bearing bushes and trees it may 
be possible to prevent losses to cultivated fruits and at the 
same time to attract the birds and so secure their much- 
needed help in destroy ing insect pests. 

The catbird is an excellent example of this. Experi- 
ments show that he prefers the red mulberry to cherries 
and strawberriers, and stomach examinations show that 
he eats twice as much wild fruit as cultivated, while 
one-third of his food is made up of insects. A slight idea 
of the good he does in destroying pests may be had from 
the fact that thirty grasshoppers were found in each of 
five stomachs. Reports show that he does much more 
harm in the central United States, where wild fruits are 



THE FARM AND QAHOKN. 9 

scarce, than near the coast, where they are abundant. 
Mr. Judd suggests that the crops of cherries and straw- 
berries can be protected by planting the "prohfic Russian 
mulberry, which, if planted in hen yards and pig runs, 
will afford excellent food for the hens and pigs besides 
attracticgthe birds away from more valuable fruit." 

The verdict in the case of the catbird is, that he is 
already one of the farmer's best assistants, and that by a 
little effort the small amount of harm he does might be 
counteracted so that he would do unalloyed good in the 
farm and garden. 

Kingbird. 
The kingbird has been so long accused of destroying 
honey bees that careful examinations have been made of 
218 stomachs. Insects formed about 90 per cent, of the 
whole food, but only fourteen of the 2i8 stomachs con- 
tained any trace of honey bees. Furthermore, nearly all 
the bees found were drones. On the other hand, the 
kingbird had destroyed a num- 
ber of the worker bees' worst 
enemy, the robber fly, which 
has been known to kill 140 
honey bees in a day; so this 
bird's reputation stands well 
cleared. More than this, the good 
done by this industrious flycatch- 
er does not end with the death of 
the robber fly. Nearly 60 per 
cent, of his food consists of insects 
well known to be injurious^ 
uoBBKR FLY. Amoug them are the gadfly, so 

terrifying to horses and cattle; the 
clove rleaf weevil, the destructive rosechafer, ants and 
grasshoppers. 

Of the little fruit the kingbird eats, only three or four 
kinds are cultivated, and if he were to harm one kind of 
fruit it would be easy to plant something that he would 
eat instead, as he feeds on wild red and black cherries, 
choke cherries, elderberries, mulberries, wild grapes, 
spice bush, sassafras, cornel, red and ground cedar, buck- 
thorn, magnolia and pokeberry. 

The conclusion reached from the examination of the 
218 stomachs is that the kingbird is one of the best helps 
the farmer has in the destruction of harmful insects. One 
correspondent exclaims fervently, "1 honor and esteem 
this bird for the millions of ruinous vermin he ridp 
us of!" 




10 HOW BIRDS AFFECT 



Swallows. 



The swallows are probably tbe greatest flycatchers in 
the eastern United States, but in addition to this they 
destroy great numbers of flying ants, aquatic leaf -eating 
beetles and weevils. 

Barn Swallow. 
Mr. Judd says, "The barn swallow is the most noted 
destroyer of flies, especially those kinds which torment 
stock." 

Eave Swallow. 

This useful bird builds under the eaves of our barns 
and eats enormous quantities of winged ants and also 
mosquitoes, injurious wheat midges, spotted squash 
beetles, and beetles that work under the bark of trees. 

Chickadee. 

In an article on * 'Birds as Protectors of Orchards," Mr. 
E. H. Forbush, of the Massachusetts Board of Agricul- 
ture, says of the chickadee: "There is no bird that can 
compare with it in destroying the female cankerworm 
moths and their eggs." He calculated that one chickadee 
in one day would destroy 5,550 eggs, and in the twenty- 
five days in which the cankerworm moths run or crawl 
up the trees 13c5,750 eggs. Mr. Forbush attracted chick- 
adees to one orchard by feeding them in winter, and he 
says that in the following summer "it was noticed that 
while trees in neighboring orchards were seriously in- 
fested with cankerworms and to a less degree with tent 
caterpillars, those in the orchard which had been fre- 
quented by the chickadees during the winter and spring 
were not seriously infested, and that comparatively few 
of the worms and caterpillars were to be found there." 
His conclusion is that birds that eat eggs of insects are of 
the greatest value to the farmer, as they feed almost 
entirely on injurious insects and their eggs, and are 
present all winter, when other birds are absent. 

Cedar Bird. 

The cedar bird is also known as the cherry bird, but 
cultivated cherries have been found in only nine out of 
152 stomachs examined, which, as Prof. Beal says, 
"hardly justifies the reputation which the bird has gainsd 
as a destroyer of cherries." He adds that this supposed 
cherry habit "to the careless and unobservant would con- 
demn the bird to destruction, but the closer observer looks 
further." Investigation shows that more than half of the 



THE FARM AND GARDEN. 11 

whole food of the cellar bird consists of wild fruit which 
has no value, and that one-eighth of its food consists of in- 
sects, among which are some of the worst pests of the 
country. Furthermore, since the nestlings are fed largely 
on insects, the greatest number of insects are eaten when 
fruit is most abundant. The cedar bird eats caterpillars, 
spiders and grasshoppers, but does most marked good in 
destroying the elm leaf beetle that strips our village and 
city trees of leaves. Mrs. Mary Treat writes of one town 
in which the elms had been ruined for several years before 
the cedar birds came, and which were afterward compar- 
atively free from beetles. From one calculation it is 
shown that thirty cedar birds wculd destroy 9,000 worms 
during the month when the cut-worm caterpillar is ex- 
posed. 

To prevent the cedar bird from eating cultivated fruit 
and to attract it to secure its help in destroying cater- 
pillars it would be well to plant the common bushes upon 
whose berries it feeds, such as blackberry, wild cherry, 
choke cherry, sour gum, flowering dogwood, rough-leaved 
dogwood, chokeberry, red cedar, June berry, hackberry, 
black haw, black elder, huckleberry, frost grape, bar- 
berry, mistletoe, or pokeberry. 

Crow. 

The charges against the crow are (1) that it pulls sprout- 
ing corn; (2) that it injures corn in the milk; (8) that it 
destroys cultivated fruit, and (4) that it feeds on the eggs 
and young of poultry and wild birds. 

Nine hundred stomachs have been examined, but while 
it has been found that the crow does eat the forbidden 
food, it has also been seen that the quantity he eats is so 
small that it is more than counterbalanced by the good he 
does in destroying injurious insects and harmful animals. 
Only 3 per cent, of the total food of the crow is sprouting 
corn and corn in the milk; the rest that he is credited with 
is mostly waste grain picked up here and there mainly in 
winter, and so of no economic value. The injury the 
crow does to cultivated fruits is trivial. Moreover, the 
eggs and young of poultry and wild birds which he eats 
constitute only 1 per cent, of his food for the year. The 
prejudice against him is based on an exaggeration of the 
harm he does, for in each instance it is proved to be insig- 
nificant. 

Some intelligent farmers who realizo the money value 
of the services of the crows either feed them old corn 
during the time when the growing corn is in the milk or 
else tar the corn before planting, in both cases protecting 



12 HOW BIRDS AFFECT 

themse.sres rrom the injury the birds may do, and at the 
same time insuring their help in destroying the pests that 
will surely menace the maturing crop. Tarring must be 
done carefully to be successful. The best methods are 
given in the Crow Bulletin (No. 6), pp. 89-91. 

But while protecting ourselves from the possible sins 
of the crow we must credit him with the good he does; 
26 per cent, of his entire food consists of insects, the 
majority of which are grasshoppers, May beetles, cut 
worms and other injurious kinds. Another of the most 
important items of the crow's food is mice, and when 
rabbits and other harmful rodents are added to the list it 
becomes obvious that the good the bird does exceeds the 
bad, and that he is deserving the patient encouragement 
of the farmer. When we consider the work the crow 
does as a 3cavoDger, our debt to him becomes still more 
apparent. 

It has been well said that we do not shoot our cows and 
horses, although they cat our grain throughout the year; 
and it seems strange indeed that we should be unwilling 
to feed the birds during a few weeks when they spend 
the rest of the summer as unpaid day laborers in our 
farms and gardens, freeing us from pests which threaten 
to destroy all our profits. 

Bluejay. 

Like the crow, the bluejay is accused of pulling corn 
and eating young birds and eggs; 2b0 stomachs have been 
examined. Of these, remains of birds' eggs were found 
in only three, and of birds in two; 11 per cent, of the food 
of the year was found to be corn, but on the other hand 
28 per cent, was made up of insects, such as grasshopperc 
and caterpillars, which shows that the jay does morot,L»od 
than harm. 

In the matter of grain, the jay seems to take corn when 
nothing betier offers, but evidently prefers mast, the 
large seeds of trees and shrubs, such as acorns, chestnuts, 
beechnuts and hazelnuts. This preference is shown by 
the fact that in the two months when the most corn is to 
be had— October and November— the bluejay stomachs 
show only 1 per cent, of corn against 64 per cent, of mast. 
Moreover, when corn is actually thrown out to the jay, 
as it often is on beds of chaff by New England farmerc in 
winter, the moment the bare spots appear so that he can 
pick up his favorite food from the ground he deserts the 
coruc 

The conclusion is that the bluejay has been unduly 
censured in the matter of eating young birds and eggs, 



THE FARM AND GARDEIS. 



13 



and that, as he does not eat corn when he can obtain mast, 
he does less harm in eating corn than good in destroying 
insects., 

House Wren„ 
The house wren is exclusively insectivorous and there- 
fore highly beneficial. Half of its food is grasshoppers 
and beetles; it also destroys ants, caterpillars, bugs, 
crickets and spiders,, 











Cuckoon 

The cuckoo eats so many caterpillars that the walla of 
its stomach are filled with hairs, making them look like 
pieces of felt hat. One cuckoo was found with forty- 
three caterpillars in its stomach. 

Black-Billed Cuckoo. 

In sixteen stomachs examined there were 828 caterpillarSj 
fifteen grasshoppers, spiders, etc. The caterpillars were 
most of them hairy ones, many of them of a kind that 
lives in colonies and feeds on the leaves of apple and other 
trees. 



14 



HOW BIRDS AFFECT 



Yellow-Billed Cuckoo. 

In twenty-one stomachs there were 355 caterpillars, 
twenty-three grasshoppers, saw flies, potato bugs, locusts, 
etc. One stomach contained twelve tent caterpillars, and 
another had 217 fall web worms. 

Oriole. 

Green corn has been found in one of 113 stomachs and 
peas in two; but one man who reports that the bird eats 
grapes adds that it is worth its weight in gold as an in- 
sect destroyer. Mr. Lawrence Bruner, in his "Notes on 
Nebraska Birds," well says: "If we take pains to water 
our birds during the dry season, they will be much less 
apt to seek this supply from the juices of fruits that are 




BALTIMOUE ORIOLE. 

SO temptingly near at hand. Place little pans of water in 
the orchard and vineyard where the birds can visit them 
without fear of being seized by the house cat or knocked 
over by a missile from the alert 'small boy,' and I am sure 
that the injury to fruit to a great extent at least will 
cease. Speaking of the Baltimore oriole he adds: "As 
insect destroyers, both this bird and the orchard oriole 
have had an undisputed reputation for many years; and 
the kind of insects destroyed by both are of such a class 
as count in their favor." 



THE FARM AND GARDEN. 15 

Prof. Beal says: "The oriole is a most potent factor in 
the destruction of caterpillars, eating so many that if no 
other insects were taken it would still be classed as a use- 
ful bird. It does not, however, restrict its diet to cater- 
pillars, but eats great numbers of injurious beetles and 
also many bugs and grasshoppers, including beetles that 
feed on locust and apple trees, and the wire worm, one of 
the most destructive insects with which the farmer has to 
contend. In fact the oriole is one of the most useful birds 
that we have." 

Horned Lark; Shore Lark. 

It has been complained that the lark eats newly planted 
wheat and oats, but the examination of fifty-nine stom- 
achs shows that it does not do any appreciable damage 
to grain crops, and on the other hand it does great good 
by eating weed seed. As Professor Beal says, "Any bird 
which eats freely the seeds of such pests as pigweed, bit- 
ter weed, amaranth and sorrel should be given the most 
perfect protection unless it is clearly shown to have bad 
habits which offset the benefit thus conferred." 

Butcherbird. 

The butcherbird comes South into the Uniied States in 
winter, and does good by destroying grasshoppers, mice 
and English sparrows. 

Loggerhead Shrike. 

This shrike is the common United States butcherbird. 
In the summer he lives on insects — 9a p^r cent, of the 
food for July and August in eighty-eight stomachs con- 
sisted of insects, mainly grasshoppers. In winter, when 
insects are scarce, the shrike becomes carnivorous; in- 
deed, mice form 11 per cent, of the food for the year. 

As will be inferred, the beneficial qualities of the shrike 
far outweigh the injurious. 

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. 

This beautiful bird has shown itself of especial impor- 
tance to the farmer because of its fondness for potato bee- 
tles, and should be protected and encouraged in every 
way. 

Red-Winged Blackbird. 

Mr. Lawrence Bruner says, "In the red- winged black- 
bird we have a friend that we little dream of when we 
see the large flocks gathering about our cornfields 
during late summer and early fall. During the balance 



16 HOW BIRDS AFFELT 

of the year it is engaged most of the time in waging war 
upon various insect pests, including such forms as the 
grub worms, cut-worms, grasshoppers, army worm, beet 
caterpillar, etc. Even when it visits our cornfields it 
more than pays for the corn it eats, by the destruction of 
the worms that lurk under the husks of the large per cent, 
of the ears in every field. 

"Several years ago the beet fields in the vicinity of Grand 
Island were threatened with great injury by a certain 
caterpillar that had nearly defoliated all the beets growing 
in many of them. At about this time large flocks of this 
bird appeared, and after a week's sojourn the caterpillar 
plague had vanished." 

In winter the red-winged blackbird serves the farmer 
by destroying seeds of ragweed, foxtail grass and bind- 
weed, while all through the summer it does great good 
by * 'destroying myriads of caterpillars, grasshoppers and 
weevils. Indeed it is without a peer as an enemy to one 
of our most injurious classes of insects—the weevils." 

PhoBbe« 

The phoebe lives mainly up- 
on animal food. It destroys 
some useful itsects, but does 
more good than harm by eating 
numbers of weevils, so injurious 
to peas, beans and wheat; and 
also by reducing the number of 
flies, bugs, May beetles, caterpil- 
lars, squash beetles, elm-leaf bee- weevil. 
ties and grasshoppers. 

Wood Pewee. 

The pewee, like its relative, the phoebe, feeds largely on 
the family of flies to which the house fly belongs, 

Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher. 

This little flycatcher does good by catching the injuri- 
ous weevils. 

Vireos. 

The greenlets may be found from morning till night 
searching among the leafy treetops for insects both in our 
forests and in our villages and towns. They probably 
rank next to the cuckoo in the destruction of caterpillars, 
and are also of great value from their fondness for bugs 
and weevils. May beetles^ inch worms and leaf-eating 
beetles. 




THE FARM AND GAROKM. 



17 



Brown 'i hrashern 



Mr. Judd, in his report on the thrasher, says: "The fruit 
grower who sees the birds flocking into his cherry tree 
not only neglects to observe the birds sandwichinsr in with 
the luscious fruit dainty morsels of insects, but also over- 
looks the fact that when the cherry aeaaon is over thf y 




BEOWN THRASHER. 



raise havoc with his worst enemies. The quantity of food 
taken from cultivated crons by the thrasher amounts to 
only 11 per cent. ; of this 8 per cent, is fruit, and the rest 
grain. The farmer is more than compensated for this 
loss by the destruction of an equal bulk of May beetlf s, 
which, if allowed to live, would have done much more 
harm than the thrashers, and left a multitudinous progeny 
for next year." 

Crow Blackbird. 

Sometimes birds become too crowded in one place and 
their numbers need to be reduced. This is occasionally 
true of the crow blackbird, for when it descends upon a 
field in hundreds of thousands it inflicts real damage. 
Bat such instances are exceptional and can usually be 
prevented. One of the blackbird's commonest pursuits is 
to follow the plow, and after the birds have been doing it 
their stomachs are found ''crammed with grubs. They 



18 



HOW BIRDS AFFECT 



also eat the destructive rose bug,vCurculio, May beetle, 
grasshopper, cricket and locust. Indeed, Professor Deal's 




CROW BLACKBIKD. 



conclusion is that *'By destroying insects they do incal- 
culable good." 

Robin. 

The robin is accused of eating cultivated fruits, but ex- 
aminations show that less than 5 per cent, of his food 
is grown by man. As nearly half his food is wild fruit, it 
would be easy to substitute something for the garden 
products that he troubles. On the other hand, nearly half 
his food is animal, including wasps, ants, bugs, spiders, 
angleworms and a large per cent, of grasshoppers, 
crickets and caterpillars. He also eats great numbers of 
March fly larvae, so preventing much injury to the grass 
in the hay fields. 

Professor Forbes asks this question: "Will the destruc- 
tion of seventeen quarts of average caterpillars, including 
at least eight quarts of cut worms, pay for twenty-four 
quarts of cherries, blackberries, currants and grapes?" 
And Mr. Bruner says: *'He is a poor business man who 
pays $10 for that which he knows must later be sold for 
15 cents or even less. Yet I have known of instances 
where a robin that had saved from ten to fifteen bushels 



THE F4.RM AND GARDEN. 



Id 



of apples that were worth a dollar per bushel, by clearing 
the tree from canker worms in the spring, was shot when 
he simply pecked one of the apples that he had saved for 
the grateful or ungrateful fruit grower." 

The robin is such a favorite that it is interesting to know 
what wild fruits can be planted to attract him and draw 
his attention from the small fruits of the garden when he 
chances to take an undue amount. The wild fruits found 
in his stomach are dogwood, wild grape, wild black 
cherry, choke cherry, bird cherry, mulberry, greenbrier 
berry, cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry, holly berry, 
elderberry, hackberry, service barry, spice berry, haw- 
thorn, bittersweet, Virginia creeper, moonseed, mountain 
ash, black haw, barberry, pokeberry, strawberry bush, 
juniper, persimmon, saw palmetto, California mistletoe 
and bayberry. 

Bluebird. 

More than three-quarters of the bluebird's food is ani- 
mal, nearly a quarter of it being grasshoppers and crickets, 
and a tenth caterpillars. 

There is no cultivated fruit on his list, but as he is a 
bird which everyone is anxious to attract, it is well to 
know for which wild fruits he seems to have a preference. 
He has been found to eat bird cherry, choke cherry, dog- 
wood, bush cranberry, huckleberry, greenbrier, Virginia 
creeper, strawberry, juniper berry, bittersweet, pokeberry, 
false spikenard, partridge berry and wild sarsaparilla. 

Meadow Lark. 

It has been said that the meadow lark eats clover seed, 
but in looking for it in stomach contents it was found in 

only six out of 238 stom- 
achs, and 99 per cent, of the 
food at clover time was 
found to be insects, mainly 
grasshopper s — insects 
whose ravages have been 
notorious from the earliest 
times. Prof. Beal says, 
"The number eaten is so 
enormous as to entitle the 
meadow lark to rank among 
the most eflScient of our native birds as a grasshopper de- 
stroyer." It is estimated that the value of the grass crop 
saved by meadow larks on a township of thirty-six square 
miles each month during the grasshopper season is about 




SMALL GRASSHOPPER. 



20 HOW BIRDS AFFECT 

J. 

"Nor are the other components of the insect food less 
important except in quantity. Some of the most injuri- 
ous beetles form a considerable percentage of the stomach 




"■^^^: 



MEADOW LARK. 



contents." Among other insects eaten by the meadow 
lark are May beetles, ants, bugs, caterpillars, curculios 
and leaf beetles. In conclusion Prof. Baal says, "Far 
from being injurious, it is one of the most U3eful allies to 
agriculture, standing almost without a peer as a destroyer 
of noxious insects." 

Woodpeckers.— Sapsucker. 

The sapsucker has the habit of drilling holes in the bark 
of trees, and, as his name would indicate, sucks the sap 
that exudes from the tree. But this is not all, nor does it 
doom him to disfavor. Now and then an individual sap- 
sucker may girdle and kill an ornamental birch on a lawn; 
but for one which does that, numbers are at work destroy- 
ing the insects that gather at the sap on the hardy forest 
trees which the woodpecker will not harm. A description 
of the sapsucker's performance says. "As the sap exudes 
from the newly-made punctures, thousands of flies, yellow 
jackets and other insects congregate about the place, till 
the hum of their wings suggests a swarm of bees. If now 
Dhe tree be watched, the woodpecker will soon be seen to 
return and alight over the part of the girdle which he has 
most recently punctured. Here he remains with motion- 
less body and feeds upon the choicest species from a host 
of insects within easy reach," 



THE JbABM AND GARDEN. 



21 



Some sapsuckers have been experimented with to find 
out if they could live principally on syrup, but m each 
instance have died from the diet. Stomach examinations 
bear out the testimony. The sapsucker is largely an in- 



I. 17 O ' 1 f 








ri^f^i^"^— ■■ 



^APSUCKBH. 



sect eater. Thirty -six per cent, of his solid food consists 
of ants. He also destroys wasp*^, beetles, bugs, dies, 
grasshoppers and crickets. He eats more flies than any 
other woodpecker. To keep him from ornamental trees 
it might be well to plant the dogwood, black alder, Vir-^ 
ginia creeper, wild black cherry and juniper. 



22 HOW BIRDS AFFECT 

Red-Headed Woodpecker. 

The redhead eats more grasshoppers than any other 
woodpecker. It also assists in destroying; June bugs and 
weevills. In the North its main food is beechnuts. It 
does some harm by eating grain and fruit, but not enough 




\ ..Vm 



,. :>> 



IS v'tV',;/ 



I'l ite 









RED HEADED WOODPECKER. 



to amount to much. As it eats a large quantity of wild 
fruit, it could probably be diverted from the cultivated 
varieties by planting wild ones where they do not exist. 
The best would probably be dogwood, mulberry, elder- 
berry, choke cherry and wild black cherry. 



THE FARM AND GARDEN. 
Flicker. 



23 



Nearly half of the food of the flicker is ants. Three 
thousand were found in one stomach. As ants spread 
plant lice, destroy timber and infest bouses, the flicker is 
certainly a useful bird. It does good work in other ways 




also. Like many innocent birds, the flicker has been 
accused of corn-eating, but only five out of 230 stomachs 
contained any corn. 

Prof. Beal, having spoken of the good work the wood- 
peckers did in Nebraska at the time of the grasshopper 
devastation, says of the downy, hairy and flicker: "Not 
one of the trio shows a questionable trait, and they should 
be protected and encouraged in every possible way." 

Hairy Woodpecker. 
The hairy comes next to the downy in usefulness. It 
eats a large number of beetles and caterpillars, almost no 
grain, and only wild fruits. Sixty-eight per cent, of its 
food is animal, including ants, beetles, bugs, grasshoppers 
and spiders. 



24 



HOW BIRDS AFFECT 




HAIRY WOODPBCRKR* 




TREK- BORING 



Downy Woodpecker, 

This little woodpecker, the smallest of the 
family, has been accused of eating fruit, but 
in 140 stomachs examined apple was found 
in only two and strawberries in one. On the 
other hand, almost 75 per cent, of tho bird's 
food is insects. Eleven woodpeckers taken in 
Kansas in winter contained 10 per cent, of 
grasshopper eggs. The little bird also destroys 
May beetles, plant lice and ants. A single 
wood- borer will often kill an entire tree, and 
one-fifth of the downy's animal food consists of 
caterpillars, many of which bore into wood 
and live on stems and leaves. Indeed, the 
downy is the most beneficial of all the useful 
woodpecker family. 



THE fARM AND GARDEN. 



25 



Hawks and Owls= 
In speaking of the injustice which has been done to 
many of the best friends of the farm and garden, Dr. 
Fisher says: * 'The birds of prey, the majority of which 
labor night and day to destroy the enemies of the hus- 
bandmen, are persecuted unceasingly." There are only 
three common inland hawks in the United States that do 
harm, and when this is understood it becomes most im- 
portant that they should be distinguished from those 
whose services are of value in order that the beneficial 
ones may not be killed by mistake. They are the 
goshawk, Cooper's hawk, and sharp-shinned hawk. Of 




RKD-TAILKD HAWK. 



26 HOW BIRDS AFFECT 

these, fortunately, the goshawk is rare in the United 
States except in winter. Cooper's hawk, or the chicken 
hawk, is the most destructive, especially to doves; and the 
sharp -shinned hawk is very destructive to small birds, 96 
per cent, of its stomach contents consisting of birds. But 
about two-thirds of the birds of prey in the United States 
are mainly beneficial. 

Marsh Hawk. 

The marsh hawk is one of the most valuable of the num- 
ber. It can be easily distinguished by its white rump and 
its habit of beating low over the meadows, for it is an 
indefatigable mouser. Meadow mice, rabbits and squir- 
rels are its favorite quarry. 

X / 

Red-Tailed Havvk, Hen Hawk. 

This name, which the bird does not deserve, is responsible 
for much of the false opinion regarding it. Dr. Fisher 
says: "While fully 66 per cent, of the red-tail's food con- 
sists of injurious mammals, not more than 7 per cent, con- 
sists of poultry, and it is probable that a large proportion of 
the poultry and game captured by it and the other buzzard 
hawks is made up of old, diseased or otherwise disabled 
fowls, so preventing their interbreeding with the sound 
stock and hindering the spread of fatal epidemics." 
Among other things, the red-tail eats ground squirrels, 
rabbits, mice and rats. , 

Red-Shouldered Hawk. 1 

This useful bird's list of food includes mice, snakes, 
grasshoppers, earthworms, snails, spiders and centipedes. 
Ninety per cent, of its food is composed of injurious 
mammals and insects. 

Sparrow Hawk. 

Grasshoppers, crickets and other insects form the chief 
food of the sparrow hawk during the warm months, and 
mice during the rest of the year. 

Swainson's Hawk. 

This bird is the great grasshopper destroyer of the West. 
Ic is estimated that in a month 300 of these birds — and 
they go in large flocks— save sixty tons of produce that 
the grasshoppers would destroy. 



THE FARM AKD GARDEN. 



27 



Long-Eared Owl. 
The long-eared owi is an industrious mouser and 
molests comparatively few birds. As it is one of the 
commonest owls, the good it does must be very great. 

Barred Owl. 

Although this bird has a bad reputation, only 4i per 
cent, of its food is poultry and game, and if the chickens 
were shut up at night it would not do even this amount 
of harm. Most of its food is made up of small mammals, 
many of them the worst enemies we have. It also eats 
large numbers of injurious insects. 




'-^v^-^^ 






SPARROW HAWKS. 



HOW BIRDS AFFECT 



Screech Owl 



Nearly three-fourths of its food is of injurious mam- 
mals and insects, including grasshoppers, crickets and 
cutworms, mice and rats. 

Barn Owl. 

The food of the barn owl consists almost exclusively of 
mammals, such as gophers, the common rat and cotton 
rat, mice and shrews. From the nest of one pair of owls 
454 skulls were taken, of which 225 were meadow mice 
and 179 house mice. Six hundred and seventy-five "pel- 
lets" or rejpcts of the barn owl, taken from one of ths 
towers of the Smithsonian Institution by Dr. A. K. 
Fisher, contained the remains of 1 821 mammals, birds 
and batracbians, as follows: Rabbits 1, rats 134, mice 
1,596, short-tailed shrews 54, moles 1, bats 1, small birds 
32, frogs 2. In other words, mice constituted 93 per cent- 
of the food of these owls. 

English Sparrow. 

It seems remarkable that the sparrow should ever have 
been introduced into the United States, for the English 
had already been fifty years in trying to destroy the pest; 
and in Australia the injury done by thesparrow bad been 
30 serious that the bird became the dominant factor in 
politics, an election hanging on the question of its ex- 
termination, and the leaders who stood for its active de- 
struction winning the day. 

In the United States we are reaping the results of our 
own ie;norance and folly. Since the bird was introduced 
in IbSO it has become established in thirty-five States and 
five Territories, and has done its worst in driving away 
our native birds and destroying buds, blossoms, fruit and 
grain. 

It has been shown to interfere with seventy kinds of 
our own birds, most of which nest about houses and gar- 
dens and are beneficial to the farm and garden. The ex- 
amination of 528 stomachs shows that, while it eats 
wheat, oatB and corn, it has little interest in insects. Of 
the insects which it has been found to eat, forty-seven 
kinds are harmful, while fifty are beneficial, which shows 
how much good is to be expected from it in destroying 
pests to counterbalance what it does in driving away our 
own birds that live on insects. 

It is clear that the English sparrow should be exter- 
minated, that laws protecting him should be repealed, 
and that some intelligent, systematic action should be 
^ak'^n to rid the TTnited States of his obnos^ioiis presence. 



THE FARM AND OARDEN. 29 

Bounty laws cannot do this, for, as has been clearly de- 
monstrated, they do more mischief than can easily be 
remedied, as money is- usually spent on the heads of the 
valuable birds that have been mistaken for the injurious 
ones. Small boys also are likely to do more harm than 
good by destroying the wrong birds. But the work 
might be effectively done by State boards or commis- 
sioners, who should hire trained assistants to destroy 
the birds and their nests. 



Conclusione 

So far as it has gone, the examination of the stomach 
contents of birds has proved that, except in rare cases, 
where individuals attack cultivated fruits and grains, our 
native birds merely preserve the balance of nature by de- 
stroying weeds that plague the farmer and by checking 
the insects that destroy the produce of the agriculturist. 
The great value of birds is demonstrated. The question 
is first how to attract them where they have disappeared, 
and then how to protect the crops from their occasional 
depredations. Mr. Forbush, who has experimented in 
the matter in Massachusetts, both fed the birds and 
planted bushes to attract them. He says: 'It is evident 
that a diversity of plants which encourages diversified 
insect life and assures an abundance of fruits and seeds 
as an attraction to birds will insure their presence." 

The cultivated crops can be protected in two ways: 
either by mechanical devices that frighten the birds away 
from the fruit or grain fields, or by the substitution of 
wild or cultivated kinds. To frighten the birds away, 
white twine can be strung across berry beds, string hung 
with bits of glittering waste tin over fields, while stuffed 
hawks and cats can be kept in orchards. To attract the 
birds from cultivated fruit it is well to plant some wild 
fruit that will bear during the weeks when the birds eat 
the garden or orchard crops. In this connection Mr. For- 
bush says: "I wish particularly to note the fact that the 
mulberry trees, which ripen their berries in June, proved 
to be a protection to the cultivated cherries, as the fruit- 
eating birds seem to prefer them to the cultivated cherries, 
perhaps because they ripen somewhat earlier"; and he 
adds, "I believe it would be wise for the farmer to plant 
rows of these trees near his orchard, and it is possible that 
the early June berry or shadberry might also be useful in 
this rpspect." 

Prof. Beal suggests planting berry bushes along the 
roaas and lences and between grain fields. 



30 HOW BIRDS AVFECT 

To protect strawberries and cherries (May and June), 
plant Russian mulberry and June berry or shadberry. 

To protect raspberries and blackberries (July and Au- 
gust), plant mulberry, buckthorn, elder and choke 
cherry. 

To protect apples, peaches, grapes (September and Octo- 
ber), plant choke cherries, elder, wild black cherry and 
Virginia creeper. 

To protect winter fruits, plant Virginia creeper, dog- 
wood, mountain ash, bittersweet, viburnum, hackberry, 
bayberry and pokeberry. 

Mulberries are eaten by the flycatchers, warblers, 
vireos, cuckoos, blackbirds, orioles, finches, sparrows, 
tanagers, waxwings, catbirds, bluebirds and thrushes. 

Potato beetles are eaten by the rose-breasted grosbeak, 
cuckoo and quail. 

Tent caterpillars (which do most harm to apple and 
cherry trees) are eaten by the crow, chickadee, oriole, 
red-eyed vireo, yellow-billed cuckoo, black-billed cuckoo, 
chipping sparrow and yellow warbler. 

Cutworms (which cut off corn, etc., before it is fairly 
started in the spring, and are very destructive to grass) 
are eaten by the robin, crow, catbird, loggerhead shrike, 
house wren, meadow lark, cowbird, Biltimore oriole, 
brown thrasher and red- winged blackbird. 

Ants (which spread plant-lice, destroy timber and infest 
houses) are the favorite food of the catbird, thrasher, 
house wren and woodpeckers; and are eaten by almost 
all land birds except birds of prey. 

Scale insfcts (which are a fruit-tree p°st, injuring 
orangfs, olives, etc) are eaten by the bush tit, wood- 
peckers and cedar bird. 

The May beetle (which ravages forest trees, and also in- 
jures grain and grass lands) is eaten by the hermit thrush, 
wood thrui=h, robin, meadow lark, brown thrasher, blue- 
bird, catbird, blue jay, crow blackbird, crow, loggerhead 
shrike, mockingbird and gray-cheeked thrush. 

Weevils [which injure grain, forage and market gardens) 
are eaten by the crow, crow blackbird, red-winged black- 
bird, Baltimore oriole, catbird, brown thrasher, house 
wren, meadow lark, cowbird, bluebird, robin, swallows, 
flycatchers, mockingbird, woodpeckers, wood thrush, 
Alice's thrush and scarlet tanager. 

The chinch bug (which eats grain and wheat) is eaten 
by the brown tbrasher-, meadow lark, catbird, red-eyed 
vireo, robin and Bob White. 

The wire woi^m (which causes heavy losses in the corn- 
field) is eaten by the red- winged blackbird, crow black- 



THE FARM AND GARDEN. 



31 



bird, crow, woodpeckers, brown thrasher, scarlet ta-nager, 
robin, catbird, Baltiiaore oriole, meadow lark and cow- 

Crane flies {which eat grassroots in the hay fields) are 
eaten by the robin, catbird, wood thrush, gray-cheeked 
thrush, olive-backed thrush, crow, crow blackbird and 
red- winged blackbird. 

The soldier hug is eaten by the robin, bluebird, crow 
blackbirfl, crow, catbird, house wren, red-winged black- 
bird, Baltimore oriole and meadow lark. 

Cotton worms are eaten by the bluebird, blue] ay, red- 
winged blackbird, thrush, prairie chicken, quail, kildee, 
bobolink, mockingbird, cardinal and cuckoo. 

Oypsy moth.— Mr. Forbush, ornithologist of the Massa- 
chusetts State Board of Agriculture, gives the following 
list of birds seen to feed on the gypsy moth: Yellow-billed 
cuckoo, black-billed cuckoo, hairy woodpecker, downy 
woodpecker, pigeon woodpecker, kingbird, great crested 
flycatcher, phoebe, wood pewee, least flycatcher, bluejay, 
crow, Baltimore oriole, purple grackle or crow blackbird, 
chipping sparrow, chewink, rose breasted grosbeak, indi- 
go bird, scarlet tanager, red-eyed vireo, yellow-throated 
vireo, white-eyed vireo, black-and-white warbler, yellow 
warbler, chestnut-sided warbler, black-throated green 
warbler, oven bird, Maryland yellow-throated warbler, 
American redstart, catbird, brown thrasher, house wren, 
white-breasted nuthatch, chickadee, wood thrush, Amer- 
ican robin, bluebird and Eaglish sparrow. 

Grasshoppers and crickets are eaten by the mock- 
ingbird, thrasher, bluebird, wrens, shore lark, goldfinch, 
longspur, grasshopper sparrow, song sparrow, junco, lark 
sparrow, dickcissel, rose-breasted grosbeak, blue gros- 
beak, indigo bunting, cardinal, chewink, bobolink, cow 
bird, red-winged blackbird, meadow lark, Baltimore ori- 
ole, orchard oriole, rusty blackbird, crow, bluejay, king- 
bird, crow blackbird, whippoorwill, night hawk, swift, 
cuckoo, red-headed woodpecker, flicker, barn owl, great- 
horned owl, marsh hawk, sparrow hawk, gulls, Swainson s 
hawk, quail, shrikes, swallows, vireos, robin and catbird. 
ArmiJ worm.— In the Massachusetts Crop Report for 
July, 1896, Mr. William R. Sessions gives a list of the 
birds he has seen feeding on the army worm during 
the present summer: Kingbird, phoebe, bobolink, cow- 
bird, red- winged blackbird, Baltimore oriole, crow black- 
bird, chipping sparrow, robin. 



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